Four chapters from Kiran’s story on Life on Road. These summaries are adapted from the video descriptions and present his personal recollections.
Kiran Rasaily recalls how precious his first new guitar was to him. He kept it away from school because he wanted to protect it. In his account, music was a passion he held onto even when people around him did not see it as a path to a future.
Guitar strings were costly and difficult to find. He remembers joining broken strings and sometimes playing with just three. This chapter follows the resourcefulness behind his love of sound: making music with what he had.
In this chapter, Kiran looks back on a world with few routes into creative work. Radios and cassette players brought distant songs into everyday life, opening a window beyond the opportunities available nearby.
He recalls seeing Lahure in Gelephu and the excitement surrounding the cinema. A local photography studio also features in these memories of a time when cameras and photographs were rare and treasured. Watch for the small encounters that helped feed a creative imagination.
Kiran’s account describes continuing school after Class 8 around 1990, then seeing his education disrupted by fear and unrest. He recounts being taken for questioning as a student and the closure of schools, leaving his plans for the future uncertain.
He also describes pressure on his family, whose pharmacy had served their community. As he tells it, concern for their safety eventually outweighed the hope of staying. This episode presents his personal recollection of the circumstances that led towards exile.
Kiran recalls leaving the family home as it stood, believing they might return soon. The familiar belongings left behind included a treasured Toshiba cassette player. His account describes the loss of the family pharmacy’s income, hunger, and three months of shelter with relatives in Assam.
He describes crossing into Nepal at night and eventually living in Timai refugee camp. Along the riverbank, wind blew sand into meals and threatened the tarpaulin shelter. He remembers Red Cross food assistance and efforts by exiled Bhutanese students to keep education going. Watch Kiran tell this part of his journey in his own voice.